Anyhoozles (that's Erik's phrase but since he never reads blogs I can use it free of repercussions), I was sitting with Amia tonight, way past her bedtime because she took a really late nap. And out of nowhere she has a linguistic and grammatic explosion right there! An excerpt:

A: A sometimes...there's a fly!

H: Yeah, there's a fly. Do you see it (it had just exited the room)?

A: Aaah, no. I don't see it anymore.

A: (Back to the Pooh book with deficient flap mechanisms) This doesn't work, daddy.

She's been using a couple complete sentences for months now, but primarily one-three word phrases. So to have a conversation like this was amazing. Someone told me this kid thing would go fast, but I didn't know know it till recently.

Oh, and today I gave a Harvard professor a ride on my scooter. What are the chances of that?!

I think I overloaded in information. For the past couple months I've been surrounded by RSS feeds giving me news from all over the place, surfing and searching with abandon. The result is that for the last week when I even think about going on the Internets I actually get a little nauseous. Seriously. I think I'm coming out on the other end. I have to come back from the edge of RSS/information addiction. But, one of the things I had the honor of working on is the Chilean Temple site! You can find it here: www.kingdom-project.org. It was really fun doing the interviews and travel journals. We have interviews of people that grew up in Chile, a Mapuche man living in Chicago, and pioneers to Chile. And this is just the beginning so stay tuned! We're exploring having RSS feeds (I can't get away from them even when I try), and a e-newsletter which will have a lot more info once the actual construction gets started.

OK, I have to get off the internet because I'm feeling a little...bleh.

Our financial planning info has a temporary home! Go to Bahaiyouth.com, look under Stories, and you'll see the second of our columns. It's temporary because this site is probably about to go into a new version, but also...

Let me take a step back. One of the things I'm doing at work is figuring out how to educate people about the ease and importance of financial planning, all in a spiritual context. This includes things like budgeting, saving, investing, buying a house, and looking at our attitudes about money.

The challenge with any kind of education is how to get this info out. I'm trying as many different media as I can. Working on a Flash film, bahaiyouth.com, a book (at some point in the not too distant future) and I'm thinking about creating a blog just for the team of experts we have volunteering their services. Let's say you wanted some information on financial planning, where would you go? In what format would you most like to read it? Would a regularly updated blog be appealing?

This past weekend I got to talk with some parents of young children, including my cousin Barb, who has three young children. We were talking about what it's been like and what we've learned, and here's what we came up with:

You learn to be organized. REALLY organized. You know how much stuff you have truck with you when you're taking care of little babies and kids? Suzanne and I have worked it out so that she takes care of Amia when we're leaving and I look around in every nook and cranny for anything we might have left, including diapers (both used and unused), crackers, water bottles, clothes, shoes, toys, books, and um...any kind of body fluid (see below).

One of the differences between parents of young children and those who aren't is that you never hear the parent of young children say the word "gross", "nasty" or their ilk. Parents of young children live in a daily mileau of body fluids, including poop, pee, mucus, and drool. There was a day last month where I actually said the phrase, "can't I go one day this week without getting some kind of body fluid on me? Please?". I was exasperated and to no one in particular because there's not much you can do. And living in such conditions you frequently talk about said functions with your partner and anyone with the stomach for it that's in the room with you.

The people that give you the most advice on parenting are more often than not not parents themselves. Advice began coming our way as soon as Suzanne was visibly pregnant, most often from people on the street or people we don't know that well. And I realized I used to do this too before I was a parent. I would see children or parenting and think, are they going to let their child get away with that?, or, I wouldn't do it that way, or, what are they thinking! No more. Ever since Amia came I've been stunned into humility. This for a couple reasons. Mostly because rarely does anyone no one know their child better than a parent. Underlying my silent judgements I think I thought I knew kids better than they did and what worked. But to judge a relationship or parenting style based on several instances is completely absurd. It'd be like a weather person analyzing the weather once or twice a month and saying, whoo it's rainy! It denies a richness of experience and learning that the parent and child have gone through. And also I know now that until you've done it, you really have no idea what it's like to be a parent. I don't think there's any imaginitive exercises or stretches you can ever do that will put you in the shoes of a parent unless you've been one. And now that I am a parent I'm doing all I can to keep up with myself and my one child. Who has the time or energy to worry about what someone else is doing?